2010: A Tech Odyssey

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Yesterday we looked at what we can expect from the next decade of technology. Today we're going to look ahead to the advances we can expect from this year alone. Even in a down economy, the picture is bright.

We all know 2009 was a great year for tech, even with the global economy recession. Luckily, technology R&D hasn’t been severely effected. With 2010, we've started another exciting year for technology. Hot products will continue evolving their capabilities in 2010; we'll see some exciting new technologies as well.

We’re going to take a look at what 2010 might entail for us tech geeks. Most of this year will be focused on mobile transitions. Sure, there will be more powerful PC hardware out there, but nothing that will be a game changer.

 

Smartphones

2009 was a huge year for smartphones, and 2010 will only continue it. Apple is always rumored to have a new iPhone in the works, and this year isn’t any different. This time, the new phone looks like it will truly be a new model, and not just a software upgrade. There have been some new iPhone images seen using some applications. The model depicted was called iPhone (3,1). The original and 3G were (1,1) and (1,2). The 3GS was (2,1), the first major change. The tag (3,1) leads to the idea that this will be a new phone.

So what will this new phone include? It’s about time for 802.11N to get added to the mix. Will it feature a bigger screen? Newer hardware? Apple bought a semiconductor company last year; a new phone would be a great place to put that new tech to work. It will be interesting to see what becomes of this.

So who will carry this new iPhone? AT&T’s exclusive contract for the iPhone is coming to an end soon. Verizon has been toying with the idea of carrying the iPhone for a while. Of course, they've also been bashing AT&T and iPhone with their Droid phones. This is going to get really interesting in 2010.

Speaking of Droid, Google's Android OS is picking up a lot of steam. Estimates point to sales of 1 million phones in 2009. With Android 2.0 coming out, and some really great phones like the Droid and HTC Dream, 2010 will only be bigger and better than 2009 for Android. Verizon will sell a lot of Droids and may even be expanding their Android handsets to create an entire Droid lineup.

You've read a lot of news on smartphones so far, but there is one more hat in the ring: Windows Mobile. Microsoft will be launching Windows Mobile 7 in 2010. The software giant has been building up hype for version 7 for a while. Not much is known, but it looks like the new Zune HD media player interface will be built in. Windows Mobile 6.5 was recently released, and showed huge improvements over 6.1. If Windows Mobile 7 turns out like Windows 7 did, Apple and Google had better look out -- Microsoft will be coming out the gate strong.

Next: GPS >>
 

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